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No. 13 seed RedHawks grab 25 offensive rebounds, but clutch shooting leads the No. 4 Cardinals to 81-67 win.
Monday, March 24, 2008
BRIDGEPORT, Conn. — The Miami University women's basketball team did exactly what it wanted to do against Louisville. The RedHawks were the aggressors.
They outhustled the 19th-ranked Cardinals. They took more shots. They grabbed more rebounds. They caused more turnovers.
Extras
But in basketball there is this pesky little thing called "putting it in the hoop," and Louisville did this with extreme prejudice to defeat the RedHawks 81-67 in the first round of the women's NCAA tournament Sunday, March 23, at Bridgeport Arena at Harbor Yard.
Chauntise Wright scored 21 points and blocked four shots and Angel McCoughtry added 20 points as the fourth-seeded Cardinals (25-9), who shot a sizzling 63.3 percent from the field, advanced to the second round to play fifth-seeded Kansas State on Wednesday.
"I'm very proud of our team," Miami coach Maria Fantanarosa said after her RedHawks made their first-ever NCAA tournament appearance and finished the season 23-11. "For the whole 40 minutes, they left it all out on the floor. They played with a lot of pride."
Senior guard Amanda Jackson ended her career with a typical performance, scoring 16 of her game-high 22 points in the second half to help keep Miami in the game until the final seven minutes, when Brandie Raddie knocked down three straight 3-point baskets for the Cardinals.
Miami also outrebounded Louisville 38-32, pulling down a staggering 25 offensive rebounds. The RedHawks also forced the Cardinals into 25 turnovers and took 22 more shots.
Unfortunately for the Red and White, the Cardinals still made nine more baskets than the RedHawks.
"The shot chart at halftime looked like a clump of Easter eggs, all right in the middle of the paint," Fantanarosa said of the Cardinals' ability to get close-in shots.
Wright, a hefty 6-foot-3 junior center, was too strong for Miami. When she got her hands on the ball under the basket, there was little the RedHawks could do. She was 9-of-12 from the field.
"We're thrilled that we were able to come out with a win," Louisville coach Jeff Walz said. "It's survive and advance. It wasn't pretty, that's for sure.
"Miami played very well, Miami played very hard," he said. "It's been a long time since we've been outrebounded."
Wright explained how it happened.
"They outhustled us, point blank," the Louisville center said. "That's about it.
